Sharpay

Okay. Here’s the background. “Sharpay” is the name we have given to our Garmin (the handy dandy direction gadget in our car). The name was our 6 year old Abbey’s idea, because the Garmin seems just a little bossy at times, like Sharpay Evans from High School Musical. Well, for our trip, we rented a version of “Sharpay” that included the roads of France, so that when we were driving from place to place, we would be assured success. I wasn’t real keen on it, as I pride myself on my sense of direction and my ability to find places. But, I warmed up to her, in spite of her incessant need to tell me to “Enter round-about.”

You see, on our way to Colmar we wanted to to try to follow some of the Tour route over the mountains; not the way the maps showed us we should go. So, we looked at the Tour route map, made a guess, and made a turn. After a moment of “Recalculating” in her most polite voice, she found us once again, and invited us to follow her on a new route. She took us on some of the most adventurous roads. We were on one lane roads, peering over the edge, hanging on for dear life, as we crested some of the mountains. It was UNBELIEVABLE! Some of these roads looked like driveways. They were tiny! And we past random cyclists out for a climb, too! I would never have found some of these beautiful places had it not been for Sharpay!

One part of the road took us literally 8 feet from a farmers sheep stall, cut into the mountain side right by the road. Another- my favorite- took us right through a farm, up against a guys house. When we went back that way another day, I saw the front door was open as we whizzed by, and I saw the kitchen table sitting right there, as if we could have just stopped, and run in for a bite or conversation and coffee!

It was astonishing to me, the roads she knew, and how confident she was, even when we weren’t! I recommend getting a Garmin for auto travel in Europe any day! It got us to the Annecy time trial- even after the French Police had politely turned us away! Thanks, Garmin!

There is a lesson here! Here we were, hoping to get from place to place, day to day, and when we were most fearful, most concerned, even most lost to ourselves and the world- what we really needed was guidance from above- and it just happened to come from the heavens, to a voice in our car, we affectionately called “Sharpay.”